Unspoken
by Disciple Of The Dragon Star
Summary: Rukia returns to the Soukyoku Hill to reflect on the scars of her past. And with the important question Ichigo feels he must ask, can she finally close the door to that particular chapter in her life? Post-canon. (NB: Typos corrected and updated. Late. Forgive me.)


**Meh...It's official. This is a pure Ichiruki story, which i have tried to make as canon and in character as possible. For some reason, imagining Ichigo as a captain is real fun. And I really liked his look at the end of the Fake Karakura Arc. Please read and review and do leave any kind of suggestion whether for improvement or a new story. I'll try my best to write it up for you. As long as it isn't yaoi, shonen-ai or yuri I really will (sorry to all homoerotic fans, I just can't write those kind.) Any pairing, perhaps even just a friendship or a funny fic. Flamers beware - I will bash you. Constructive criticism is welcome - I have a suspicion that this story is a bit...well...So I may as well need some.**

**Dedicated To: Disha5 as she really has some killer ideas. Plus she says I write canon and awesome-like...Chibi Me is running riot in my head with a goofy grin on it's face. Thanks Disha5 and now I shall go beat the crap out of the chibi to stop it yelling "I IS AWESOME!".**

**Warnings: None. Except for maybe a bit of language. And I don't own Bleach. Kubo does. Set after the series end.**

**( ^ _ ^ )\/**

**_Unspoken To Be Heard_**

There was nothing left of it but two scars etched into the rocky, blasted ground. Two perfectly round and symmetrical holes that lay a huge distance apart from each other. Rukia observed them blankly, her manner detached and calm even though it had only been a mere ten years ago that two posts had stood there with her suspended between them and ready for death.

As if the thought was a catalyst, her ears were suddenly filled with a buzzing and crackling like that of great flames. If she shut her eyes, a great flaming phoenix would swirl into being, the gaping fiery maw opening wide to engulf her...

Startled, she blinked herself awake and back into reality. A sunny morning on the Soukyoko Hill, where blue skies shone and surrounded a blazing sun that cast glittering lances of light onto the pristine city below. Not the dark day of her execution.

Rukia sighed and clutched the thin purple-blue yukata around her petite body tighter, feeling the hilt of her zanpakutou shift as the folds rustled. Years of training had forced her into carrying Sode no Shirayuki everywhere. And even though it was just a hill, innocuous as it was in the morning sunlight with blades of green grass clinging tenaciously to fissures within the rocks, it was enough to make the hairs on her neck stand on end. So many memories here. Powerless and knowing your friends were being hurt on your account...knowing your best friend and brother were having a battle on this very ground...had all that really been ten years ago? Then again, what was a mere ten years to a Shinigami, the near immortals on this plane of existence? She herself had lived over seventy years and still bore the youthful appearance of an eighteen year old. Perhaps even younger. The petite woman shifted and brushed back a wayward strand of ebony hair from her face and sighed again, the sound mingling with the whistling of the breeze that rushed through the rocks and fissures.

It had been the anniversary of her near death-day and in a kind of perverse fascination, she had been drawn to this spot. Just a look-see that was all. Oh well.

Then a powerful force sent the grass rippling in one direction as though the hand of an invisible God had bent them in obedience to His will. At first, Rukias' hand twitched to the hilt of her zanpakutou then relaxed as she felt the familiar signature of the power.

A slow smile spread across her face. What an idiot. Even after two years of being a taichou, he still couldn't control his reiatsu?

It was no surprise then to her already alerted senses, when the crunch of sandals on gravelly rock announced the arrival of the hero of Soul Society. The footsteps came up to right behind her and then stopped, Rukia feeling the warmth of the much taller form of the man beside her. They stood thus in a companiable silence and then Rukia spoke.

"Good morning Ichigo."

A chuckle. "Che. I was thinking you hadn't noticed me."

Rukia cast an annoyed glance up at the once-ryoka.

"A mere baby could sense your reiatsu a mile away fool."

Kurosaki Ichigo, Captain of the Fifth Division and head of the newly re-established Shiba Noble House ran a hand through his spiky orange hair and grinned in response. The Captain cloak, his haori, was slung rather carelessly over one shoulder in a manner reminiscent of his father and the sleeves of his shihakushou were ripped off to expose lithe, muscular arms. Even though he looked the same as he did years ago, the only difference was that his hair had grown longer like it had during the end of the Winter War. It hung down his neck and into his face like fiery tounges of flame that framed his chiselled features. he looked good. Very good, though Rukia would have happily taken on an army of Arrancar than to admit that.

'Where have you been?" she asked crossly, covering up her untimely admiration. "I didn't see you at the party nii-sama threw for the Captains. Didn't you say you were sick?"

"I didn't say I was sick, I said going to parties made me sick," Ichigo replied with a sour face. "Not to mention that face of your brother's. He keeps looking at me like he wants to kill me for some reason -"

Rukia jabbed him viciously in the stomach and whirled to face him.

"How dare you refuse a Kuchikis' invitation you imbecile?"

Ichigo rubbed his stomach and grimaced. "Rukia! I had paperwork!"

"Excuses excuses, baka!"

"No! Really! I'm serious! Rukia! OW! Not the knees! Not the knees! Lay off will you?"

Abuse for the day over with, the smaller Shinigami turned and looked over the cliff with a thunderous expression. Here, there was a dark rent in the earth, a scar she knew had come from the battle between Ichigo and Byakuya. Where Ichigo had fought and nearly died...

Her heart softened and then hardened again. In the years since Ichigo had been accepted into the Gotei Thirteen, there had been a subtle shift in their relationship.

She didn't know when or how it had begun or whether it had been there the whole time and they just hadn't noticed, but it had changed so gently, so quietly, that she hadn't had time to react. And he too had changed.

Occasionally, even though they abused each other and acted the same, there would be a strange look in his eyes, a strange indefinable expression that left her breathless and angry at the same time. A touch, a gentle caress of his hand across hers, so gentle she could swear she had imagined it. Things left unsaid in their silences, that impregnated the very air with portents of what should have been and yet was not. Like now. He had something to say, she could feel it. Building and gathering like a storm, charging the air with electricity.

"Why are you here today Rukia?" Ichigo asked in a sober tone.

She shrugged and lifted her head to the wind.

"I don't know. Maybe I just felt like reminding myself that what happened ten years ago was no dream. Not an illusion."

He approached her from behind. "And why would it have been a dream?"

Another shrug. "I don't know. The things you did back then would have just been like a dream to a mere girl."

He stood so close that she felt the warmth seeping through the thin silk of her yukata.

"Rukia," Ichigo said with a trace of amusement in his tone. "I wouldn't have gone through all that for just some _mere girl_. Why the heck would I? You aren't any mere girl. You changed my life and my world...gave me the strength to protect."

Rukia turned to face him and scrutinised him very carefully. That expression on his face was very familiar. Even with the longer hair and tanned skin.

"Why are _you_up here then?" she asked quietly.

"Well your brother told me you came here. And I had something to ask." A glance at his eyes told her a story of a thousand things that he'd repressed and left unspoken. Rukia felt the building tension and wondered what it was that had the power to fill the very atmosphere with such suspense. She nodded to let him know that he could go on and waited.

"Rukia I -" he began with difficulty. ""I know we've - I mean...I guess I haven't been very direct with you lately. I - i tried to tell you a dozen times but...I dunno. Didn't seem right. I didn't have the right you know?"

No, Rukia wanted to say, I didn't know. But she kept silent and let the words tumble from his lips as though desperate to flee imprisonment.

"But now...I am more capable. I'm a Captain and the head of a noble house. I felt I had to -"he trailed off again as though whatever it was had been very difficult to say. The amber brown eyes seemed to drift to one side and Rukia sensed uncertainty and pain.

"You have proved yourself over and over to me Ichigo," Rukia replied sternly but softly. "Am I not your nakama? I would have helped you with whatever it is. Out with it."

Ichigo seemed to rally himself and he stood taller, magnificent against the backdrop of blue sky that silhouetted his form with a blazing halo. His hair whirled in the wind like flames or a lion's mane and his eyes seemed to pierce through hers with a determined glare and a stubborn look.

"Rukia, you changed my world. You've been a guiding force, a best friend and much more for me. You were willing to sacrifice your honour, power and your life for mine so that I would escape punishment. I saved you again and again, not only because I felt a great unpayable debt to you but because -" Here his throat worked. "...Because I am lost without you Rukia. You know me like no one else; you stopped the rain that fell for years on end. I'll be damned if I ever have to live without you like I did for that year. Pain isn't even the word to express it - I was dead without you. I've tried to tell you so many times but I...Argh! This is taking too long!"

His amber eyes gleamed with an exposed and vulnerable look that held of multitudes of emotion.

"Kuchiki Rukia. Will you marry me?"

Rukia felt the blood drain from her face as a vague buzzing filled her ears like the tingle after lightning has struck nearby. The sunlight seemed to sharpen and focus; the wind dropping to a hushed murmur, a background of white noise. Her world seemed to whirl and shift. Had he just...proposed to her? A glance at Ichigos' nervous but determined face told her that even if she said something in the negative he would...he would...what?

"Ichigo," she said faintly, gazing at him in shock. Her eyes spoke to him in a wordless plea, a silent scream of _what?_He understood.

"I ask you again," he repeated firmly. "Kuchiki Rukia, will you marry me?"

Marry him? Become his _wife_? The idea filled the smaller woman with a surge of unexpected elation. But...what? Oh Kami...this was all so looked at him again and something clicked.

That expression...was the same one she had seen over ten years ago on that fateful night she had met him. The same stubborn, grumpy fifteen year old who had stood up to the raging Hollow with no weapons, ready to sacrifice his life for his family and the stranger who'd saved him and them. This was Kurosaki Ichigo. a man in all intents and purposes, the man whom she knew even better than Renji, the man who she'd fought for, almost died for and who'd done the same for her. A brief spark of memory claimed her consciousness as she remembered the little encounter they'd had in the hospital after the desertion of Aizen.

_"Ichigo?'she said with a hit of emotion. "Why?"_

_"Because I swore it on my soul Rukia," he replied with voice hoarse and cracked but eyes alive with determination. "I swore to protect you."_

And who better to claim her hand than the man who had sworn that she had been engraved upon his soul as an object to protect? There was only one thing to do.

Rukia raised her face, eyes glimmering with a thin veil of tears but also with a fierce pride and joy. There were no words, for what words could express the deep bond that almost melded their souls together? And Ichigo, he understood the answer without a word being spoken and he too acknowledged it with a stunned smile that spread across his face like dawn breaking above the horizon. His hand came up hesitantly, fingers outstretched and Rukia mirrored the motion, their fingertips brushing across each other then pressing together. Each could feel the life thrumming through the other's hand and knew that it truly belonged to the one opposite. A long moment passed like that in perfect harmony. Was this then, true happiness?

"Masaki! Our son had found true love at last!" rose a sobbing voice. "He's leaving his aging father! But I must be strong!"

"Shut up you old goat!" came the vicious hiss which was followed by a grunt of pain.

Startled, Rukia and Ichigo broke apart to see the row of heads popping up from a fissure in the ground nearby like a row of strange fruit.

Isshins' face was streaming with crocodile tears, Karin's was pissed, Yuzu appeared sheepish, Yoruichi wore a congratulatory smile on her face and Urahara grinned like the madman he was from under the striped sandal hat.

"Oyaji?" Ichigo ground out stonily. "Karin? Yuzu? Yoruichi-san? Geta-Boushi? _What exactly_are you all doing here?"

Karin sighed. "Sorry Ichii-nii. This idiot -" she threw a punch at her father which connected with a satisfying crunch - "- saw you leave after Rukia-san so he said he wanted to see whether you had the guts to propose. Yuzu got excited and followed and Yoruichi and Urahara-san came along to take pictures for the Shinigami Womens' Association. I came along to make sure our _dear father_ didn't mess up your moment."

Rukia felt the insane urge to burst into uncontrollable laughter as Ichigos' frown deepened to the extent that a vein pulsed in his temple and his eyebrows met over his eyes inan extremely angry V-shape. The placating smiles on the eavesdroppers faces became fixed and worried as his reiatsu began to lift and swirl dangerously high, wilting the meagre grass under his feet.

As though unaware of the impending Armageddon which Ichigo was hell-bent on releasing upon them, Isshin defied gravity to leap across the ground to tackle hug his son. "Ichigo! Daddy is very happy that Rukia-san is going to be his third daughter officially! Now all that remains is for you to make me a Granddaddy and give me lots of beautfiul grandbabies!"

"GET OFF YOU LECHEROUS OLD PERVERT!" Ichigo roared, attempting to free himself from his father's death grip.

"Congratulations Ichigo," Yoruichi grinned, resting her weight on her forearms.

"I'm so proud onii-chan!" Yuzu wailed with tears in her eyes.

"Way to make your sensei proud Ichigo!" Urahara hooted, tipping his hat towards Rukia and winking in a suggestive way that made her eyes widen.

Freed from his father - who know lay in a battered and bruised state - Ichigo glowered at them and reached over his shoulder for Zangetsu. He gripped the hilt and swung the sword forward, pointing it at the intruders.

"Go," he said, motioning threateningly. "You'd better be gone in five seconds or else...five. Four. Three. Two..."

But before the words "Getsuga Tenshou!" could escape his mouth, all five of the miscreants had Flash-Stepped away from the scene, laughing uproariously at the unfortunate Captain's humiliation. The last things a very red Ichigo and Rukia heard were Isshin's insane screams of "Rukia-chan's gonna make my son a maaaaaaaaaaaan!"

After they had disappeared, Ichigo gave a tired sigh and hoisted Zangetsu back onto his shoulder. "Sorry," he muttered apologetically to Rukia. "I sometimes seriously wonder why okaa-san even married him, let alone put up with him long enough to have three kids..."

Rukia stifled a smile. "It's okay. I don't mind."

Ichigo ran a narvous hand through his long locks. "Etto...We aren't going to tell your brother about this until after the wedding right? Because if we are, I think you should -"

"You're forgetting something," Rukia interrupted with a growing smile. "Your father is out there, blaring the news out at the top of his voice. And with the camera I'm sure I saw in Yoruichi-san's hands, this is going to be headline news tomorrow. Since you took the initiative of proposing to me, _you_should tell nii-sama about our marriage. Or would you prefer his sword at your throat after he reads the headlines the next day?" Her grin was positively "Class A - Evil Intent" by now.

Comprehension dawned across the orange-haired taichous' face as he realised that he was trapped and he groaned.

"Why do I feel that his first words after I tell him will include "Bankai" and "Scatter, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi?"

Rukia grasped his wrist firmly. "Let's find out Kurosaki Ichigo."

And laughing, she dragged her now rather reluctant husband-to-be down the hill. The sunlight arched and glanced across the shining fragments of rock on the hilltop where the echoes of her laugh still lingered.

On the Soukyoko Hill, Kuchiki Rukia had been sentenced to execution. She had been saved by the human ryoka, Kurosaki Ichigo who gave her a chance to live out the the rest of her life. And now, on the hill which she'd always associated with death, he'd given her the offer of a new happiness. Rukia had never expected such good things to happen but she knew that she wasn't afraid of the place any more. Just like Ichigo had changed her life, he could affect her memories and associations as well.

Facing down death and life on equal terms with the man she'd always loved, the black to her white, the sun to her moon, the man to her woman. The completion of one life meant to be lived together by their souls. Home. Not just a word but a feeling.

The doors to the past can never be closed. But sometimes, stepping through them can mean finding the people you were truly meant to be with.

**As it began, now it ends. Love it? Want to improve it? Please leave a review and tell me what you thought. Thanks for reading folks. I humbly bow to your epicness and hope that Kubo does make IchiRuki somewhat canon. At least we won't have mushiness.**


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